Esther Garman

Esther Garman was the third child of Epstein and Kathleen Garman. She was born in 1929 and was sent to live in Shelford with Kathleen’s former nanny Ada Nebould. Because Shelford was in Greater Birmingham, Esther moved to Herefordshire during the Second World War to live with her grandmother and sister. After the war she moved in with Kathleen and Theo in London and went to school in Fulham. When Kathleen moved into Epstein’s home in Hyde Park Gate Esther moved in too and enrolled as a student at the Royal College of Music. Shortly afterwards she left Hyde Park to live with the journalist Mark Joffe and his son Roland.

The relationship with Joffe was problematic, and Esther was devastated by her brother Theo’s death in 1954. She became depressed and made a suicide attempt in the autumn of 1954 which left her in a coma for three days. When she was discharged from hospital she moved to a flat in Kensington where she gassed herself in November 1954.